Musk-Trump are inventing Orwellian definitions for common words to take us back to 1984. Fraud, efficiency, waste, are all twisted around to give different meanings to different audiences. We should. It be surprised that the sons of South African apartheid and US KKK lovers would resort to this kind of rhetoric to make themselves feel better with all their obvious insecurities. The worst part is this new Orwellian language is an attack on intelligence, science, progress, competence, and decency that underpins government’s role in serving its citizenry. We must stand up to this and shine a spotlight on the lies and duplicitous intent of it all as you do so well, Tim!
“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ” George Orwell
Since Trump first came down the golden escalator, it's felt like we're living in the prequel to 1984.
I suggest reading today's Morning Shot by Bill Kristol. The following passage sums up his short column:
"Autocracy seeks to undermine not just a free government but a free society. Autocracy isn’t just about personal power, or the power of a political movement over the institutions of government. It’s about extending that power to institutions outside of government—to businesses, to the media, to civic associations."
Bill Kristol, "ASBermant," omitted standardized testing.
Admittedly, it came in at its full-bore, suffocating scale after the end of the 1970s, by which time the 1971 Powell memo's campaign to kill humanities in schools was complete. (Via the new Heritage Foundation, an expanded Hoover Institution, and a new ALEC -- the American Legislative Exchange Council.)
By its emphasis on logical categories, purely linear causality, and depersonalized language, standardized testing opened the way to the mass cultism of tens of millions.
Admittedly, too, those tens of millions also had to be given the mass offshoring by U.S. dark money, high finance, and corporate elites -- to kill entire communities across the map. But the elites did that. And began growing the wealth gap.
Enter, too Fentanyl, OxyContin, and other opioids. Enter the corn syrup epidemic. The AR-15 scourge. The hate algorithms for social media billionaires. All planned, coordinated, further growing the wealth gap, the mass hurt.
About five years ago, Putin decided to install video surveillance in every classroom in Russia; also aboard public transportation. To get ahead of critics, he named the system "Orwell." Try saying that Orwell seems Orwellian...
At the very beginning of his genocide in Ukraine, "TomD," Putin also got the signatures of all Russia's 700-plus university presidents supporting all Russia's mass murder, terror, and destruction.
I live in a very red state, in a very red county. It's a poor county filled with Magas in trailers who voted for the Felon and his pals in Congress and approve of the Proud Boys. Just wait until the R's start cutting Medicaid and other services that these people depend on. They'll cry long and loud....but they'll NEVER take responsibility for doing this to themselves.
Dr Hassan calls that one feature / identifier that is a cult. Dr Synder calls it Sado populism. The rest of us call it stupidity. I don’t think Maga understands voting against their own interest is against their own interest. I don’t think they’ll take responsibility. I think they’ve been radicalized. Part of being radicalized is never acknowledging the truth that affect you or others or that anything the dear leader, dies, or says could be negative. Scary times for sure. They have been brainwashed by screen times.
It's very difficult to get people to admit that they have been duped. The MAGAs are contorting themselves mentally every which way to deny that Trump has thrown them under the bus and has gone all in with the billionaire bros. When the Trump/Musk cuts bite MAGAs where it hurts they will blame immigrants, the deep state, anyone who doesn't look like them, George Soros conspiracies, etc.
It's difficult and probably unnecessary to get people to "admit they have been duped," but it does happen that people realize they have been betrayed. I saw that happen recently with someone. My response wouldn't be "admit you were wrong" or "I told you so," but instead, "what are you going to do to oppose the person who betrayed you?"
I too surrounded by maga and they won’t acknowledge the damage and destruction done by their assent to vote for a felon and predator. It’s also true for years they have relied on Democrats to save their bacon when it came to social security and Medicare, while not voting for democrats. It has finally caught up with them.
The entire MAGA movement is based on lies. Trump’s whole life has been a lie. But the worst part is that these people are psychopaths. They don’t just lie, they are angry and mean. The purpose of their government is to rape and plunder. The suffering and death they cause makes them feel even more powerful.
VERY CLEAR. This is the essence of the coup/con we are being served up. I wish everyone would stop for a g-d moment to consider the personal and business histories of Mr. Musk and his pet PINO Trump. The heartlessness of their treatment of employees and customers alike, the betrayal of promises, the avoidance of safety and environmental safeguards, the sheer, blatant arrogance. Is this the class of person (I won't say man because neither of these guys are more than age 14 or so in terms of their development) we want lording it over us?
Linguistic inflation (and also subversion of words to create negative connotations, i.e., “woke” the “Democrat party”) is a tool the MAGA right has been using to great effect—it is confounding and hard to combat because they are destroying the language, forcing us into a defensive position of continually needing to clarify and redefine.
I don’t think progressives ever used “woke” to describe their policies and actions, it was appropriated by MAGA as you say, but the use of the word in jest, like in a late night comedian’s opening monologue, or anecdotally in commentary, should to stop. When the only people using it are the far right, it losses its meaning, meaning it’s nothing. Progressives should now phrase comments with “I know this sounds honest/accurate/compassionate/historical/enlightened/meaningful, but it is the truth”. Some of those words are ones the far right does not understand or live by, but they are well defined unlike the truly meaningless “woke”.
I heard progressives use "woke" in the mid-2010's (how do you say that, mid-teens?) I always thought it sounded cringy. That's one I don't mind giving to MAGA.
the most obvious fraud is trump himself. i am not a fan of conspiracy theories but the more i see trump giving putin everything he wants (he calls this making deals) the more i think he really is a russian asset (i guess i am using conspiracy theories vocabulary). what he said in helsinki is not normal, and the vote that the US submitted to the UN is not normal. and the hostile attitude to zelensky is not normal.
That's not a conspiracy theory. It's fact. Did you see the vote in the UN the other day? Did we vote with the European countries or with russia, israel, north korea, and belarus?
since the very disappointing muller report back when (4 years ago?) nobody has really tried to connect the dots of trump and putin or trump and russia. also what about the 7 phone calls between trump and putin during biden's presidency? what was that a bout? and can we start talking about these calls? they are creepy to me
If you can find Deepak Puri's graphs, especially the most recent one, you'll see dots meeting each other. I guess I'd better read The Mueller Report. It been sitting on the bedside table for about four years.
I think Deepak puts his graphs up for the Democratic Party. He did one a couple of days ago that I saw on a substack, maybe Lucian Truscott's? But when I see one I'll try to let you know.
Thank you. The politicization of words is one of my favorite subjects you write about. I also enjoy reading Klemperer and Orwell on the same subject. It's a way of thinking differently and often reveals a blind spot.
Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police" details how the standardized testers and the corporate textbook packagers did this assiduously over recent decades.
Fantastic again Tim. Notable that Goebbels & Co. also thrived on PR by redefinition of words. A subtle way to push buttons and realign thinking but not look like they're doing it. Of course it takes a stupid/gullible population to swallow it without examination, which I've been convinced we are for decades. As I've said elsewhere: every person of any persuasion has power to slap back against this. Simply start boycotting, in a large concerted way, all the money-input organizations that fund the oligarchs (Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, etc). All the stuff everyone can't stop being addicted to (they think).
Thanks and PS: it's also worth being aware, in case anyone has any doubts of the power of witholding sales, that even a 3% change (more or less the trigger) in sales downward is enough to cause board meetings. I learned this very well during a "stop Home Depot" campaign in L.A. some 20 years ago. I doubt if they are watching stats any less closely today. So practice some plain old Yankee endurance and STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP.
Beautiful. I was thinking: if every single fed worker, along with their entire family tree, who's just been dumped by the executive office stopped engaging with any oligarch institution/sales outlet, what sort of a drop that would be? It's still legal to dream.
A charming way of teaching that it's always others, unseen, elite superiors, who ask the questions. Never the numbers and units that are mere students, or mere classroom teachers.
And teaching, too, that correct answer always reinforce views of the world that are categorical-deferential. Never personal. Never nuanced. Never inviting looking into complications as all decent essays will do.
Also modeling the conceit that all the "reading" any ever need to do is limited to the short texts keyed to A-B-C-D inanities. Never any whole books, which even the best universities anymore find profs having to limit or cancel altogether.
You sound like a teacher! And yes, whole books are only for those that really like to read anymore. And we're all bound to be down the river by robots in the next 30-50 years according to RethinkX:
...which is all the same to me as I'm in my late 60's. But like I've told people over and over, there was never anything written that said the human race had to survive, in this temporary configuration anyway. Just look all of them other big societies that thought they'd last 1000 years! Some dipstick threw a Hitler salute at the CPAC the other day I guess. Someone should tell him how long the Third Reich lasted (12 years out of 1000 haha). We'll see how long THEY last. Cheers.
Brilliant article and right on the money. CNN questioned Rep. Ryan Zinke (Rep. Mon) today on whether he would approve cuts to Medicaid and he said only in cases of fraud or abuse of the system. That's the playbook: cuts to Medicaid are going to be characterised as the elimination of fraud and abuse. Get used to hearing it because it's going to be coming at you day after day. On the demonisation of civil servants, Trump said yesterday that it was to establish whether federal workers actually exist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWaaReKQx_E
Marjorie Taylor Greene has also pitched in attacking federal workers for not bringing in revenue (in the IRS that's actually their job!) and perhaps someone should remind here that she also draws a federal paycheck for doing practically nothing - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UxVVL-o-ka8
On the delegitimation of government, Trump is backing Musk and DOGE, even though Musk apparently isn't the DOGE administrator (that would be Amy Gleason, a health investment adviser and former Champion for Change under Barack Obama and the first she heard about this was while she was on vacation!). Firstly, he's allowing Musk to attend the first meeting of the cabinet. Secondly, in light of the departmental resistence to the OPM email, he's asked for an executive order to be drafted requiring departments and agencies to comply with further lay-offs by DOGE. Musk meanwhile has claimed that over 1 million responses had been received to the email. One wonders who is counting them since DOGE only had 40 employees after 21 civil servants resigned yesterday.
"Firstly, he's allowing Musk to attend the first meeting of the cabinet."
And I am curious as to how much time Elon allocates to trump to speak up during that Cabinet meeting. Elon needs to make a stronger effort to make it look like trump is in charge of things, and this is a good 'clean up' opportunity, ( considering he and his kid hurt the Leader's standing--and feelings-- so badly in that unfortunate Oval office photo-op)
It was extraordinary, wasn't it? The only time I've seen Trump that subdued was during a joint press conference with Barack Obama when he was president-elect - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYkxVbYxy-c
That's why they have started with those who are still on probation and therefore have fewer legal protections against dismissal. Their 'deferred resignation' scheme promises workers payments up until October but the government is only funded until 14 March. Democrats say that they will not vote for spending on many of the administration's policies.
For that to happen, DOGE would have had first to set up a system for receiving and recording responses electronically. The OPM email includes no such system and I think that's because it was issued on a whim by Musk. Following yesterday's cabinet meeting, they have come up with a new plan requiring targeted departments to identify and eliminate non-statutory functions to facilitate reduction of the federal workforce - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/26/federal-layoffs-trump
This comes with added political risks because it will soon become apparent which federal programs will be discontinued.
There is so much to do right now, and I’ve been thinking ahead to the 2026 mid terms. It’s overwhelming to witness our democracy being attacked from the outside and now from within by 3 white boys raised in apartheid South Africa, musk, theil , sachs.
The Real Lesson from the 2016 Election: How the Russians Taught Silicon Valley Billionaires to Manipulate the Masses
The 2016 U.S. presidential election was a turning point in modern political manipulation, not just because of Russian interference but because it exposed and refined the tactics of mass influence in the digital age. While much attention has been given to Russian disinformation campaigns, the real takeaway is that Silicon Valley billionaires—who control the platforms enabling this manipulation—learned how to apply these same techniques for their own purposes. The election demonstrated that social media algorithms, microtargeted advertising, and psychological manipulation could manufacture consent, spread false narratives, and distort public perception on an unprecedented scale.
Russia’s disinformation campaign, as detailed in reports from U.S. intelligence agencies and investigative journalists, relied on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to spread propaganda, amplify divisions, and distort reality. They exploited the very algorithms designed to maximize engagement, showing that outrage and misinformation spread faster and further than truth. The most effective aspect of this campaign was not the creation of fake news but the ability to amplify and legitimize existing biases, making falsehoods feel credible.
Silicon Valley executives took note. The 2016 election was not just a lesson in foreign interference—it was a blueprint for domestic influence. Tech billionaires realized that the same tools used by Russian operatives could be repurposed for corporate and political control. By leveraging data analytics, behavioral psychology, and AI-driven content distribution, they could manipulate public opinion at scale. Platforms like Facebook and YouTube had already optimized their algorithms to keep users engaged, but the election revealed the darker potential of these systems: they could be used to create alternative realities, radicalize individuals, and drive political outcomes.
The rise of figures like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel in the political sphere demonstrates how Silicon Valley’s elite absorbed these lessons. Musk’s control of X (formerly Twitter) reflects an understanding that social media is not just a tool for communication but for shaping public consciousness. Thiel, an early Facebook investor, has long advocated for using technology to disrupt democratic institutions in favor of libertarian and authoritarian models. Their influence is not just in the platforms they own but in the broader ecosystem of digital information warfare, where billionaire-funded media outlets, think tanks, and AI-driven propaganda machines now dominate political discourse.
Ultimately, the true lesson of 2016 is that democracy is vulnerable not just to foreign adversaries but to domestic tech oligarchs who have refined and weaponized the art of mass manipulation. The same disinformation strategies that helped elect Donald Trump are now embedded in the infrastructure of Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies. Unless this influence is checked, the ability to manufacture reality will remain in the hands of those who profit from deception.
Ted-that was very good explanation and I agree with your assessment. How do we encourage or create an activist counter group to use similar tactics for 2026? There are the young Dems mentioned previously with talks of a shadow government-which I never heard of anything being created, just names. There are now many high ranking ex - military, JAGs, attorneys, Marc Cuban, Jane Fonda, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger- plenty of people who could form a counter to what is happening and create social media to reach those who didn’t vote, Magas affected by Medicaid cuts and high food prices, young people esp young men.
I guess I read a lot on Substack and Blue Sky about how pissed and concerned we are but it seems there are mostly just columnists with great ideas. There is the group Indivisible and other awareness groups, but I don’t see anything forming that has the clout to take over where Dem leaders are failing.
Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox Richardson, Rebecca Solnit, and others on Substack could program algorithms so that appearing first are commenters with track records of getting responses, stirring fellow commenters to conversation.
Schools, too, could have essaying programs teaching the arts of listening to others, and then quoting them directly and indirectly.
Dems, remember, showed themselves totally illiterate as to such skills -- seeing "others," quoting so as to show sympathy for our offshored, abandoned working classes.
This is such an old scam. Years ago, during the Obama administration, a neighbor's son had appendicitis. He was in his forties and had never really worked because he was an alcoholic. He lived with his mother. She complained to me that Obamacare did not cover his medical expenses when he had to have an appendectomy. She is a lifelong Republican (and now a Trump supporter.) I explained to her that here in TN, Obama tried to expand Medicaid to cover childless poor men like her son, but failed because the Republican dominated TN legislature declined the Medicaid dollars. I also explained that Republicans had sued and won to make sure that states could reject Medicaid dollars. She looked at me, totally confused. Finally she said, "But my son has never asked for any help in his life, and meanwhile, all those other people have been getting help from the government for years."
In other words, undeserving Others have been getting hand-outs, while her family had gotten nothing, and it wasn't fair. She could not understand that the same Republicans she had been voting for, for years, had actually done this to her. She blamed Obama, because Obamacare didn't cover her son. She could not believe that Obama had actually TRIED to cover people like her son, but people like her had voted into office Republican legislators who would take away the benefits she needed. So she ended up paying for her son's care out of her own pocket.
Sad. I don’t know how their brains work. In Canada we long ago agreed to higher taxes so everyone could have free healthcare. But most Republicans are extremely critical of Canada’s system. I have no complaints.
If Timothy Snyder’s article could be on the front page of every newspaper in the US and BlueSky so others could benefit from his wise words, it might be part of an awareness of many. The section on mistrust between the dedicated civil servants and general population was something all of us should be warned about!
Thank you, Timothy Snyder, for another enlightening comment! I have the feeling that there are not enough voices speaking out against what's going on in the US. I certainly miss prominent Democratic ones, where are they?
We've heard so much of this before over the many years that I've been voting. Thanks for succinctly putting it together. My question - I guess it's a stupid question because a lot of people are stupid - is why people fall for any of it. Is there some fraud in many areas of government? Probably. Was there a welfare queen that Reagan described? Yes, she was a real person. But that doesn't describe the vast majority of government. Nor does it counter-balance white collar crime, including fraud, in which government malfeasance is a drop in an ocean. People are ignorant, lazy. They watch TV to be spoon fed. RW media has drummed this into their heads for the last 40 years. And parroting RW disinformation is easier than thinking for oneself. We are a stupid, unengaged electorate. Hillary's basket of deplorables, while sort of accurate, does not take into account that these people are led astray. Maybe that's their own fault. But this country is in the toilet. I
Not yet, I was at the rally in San Francisco to support Ukraine this last weekend. The positive energy from people attending as well as people driving by was encouraging. Many of the supporters had no connection to Ukraine besides recognizing that their fight for democracy was linked to our democracy. I think, separate from rallys to support Ukraine, we need to organize and attend protest rallys against the actions that erode our democracy.
Musk-Trump are inventing Orwellian definitions for common words to take us back to 1984. Fraud, efficiency, waste, are all twisted around to give different meanings to different audiences. We should. It be surprised that the sons of South African apartheid and US KKK lovers would resort to this kind of rhetoric to make themselves feel better with all their obvious insecurities. The worst part is this new Orwellian language is an attack on intelligence, science, progress, competence, and decency that underpins government’s role in serving its citizenry. We must stand up to this and shine a spotlight on the lies and duplicitous intent of it all as you do so well, Tim!
“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ” George Orwell
Since Trump first came down the golden escalator, it's felt like we're living in the prequel to 1984.
I suggest reading today's Morning Shot by Bill Kristol. The following passage sums up his short column:
"Autocracy seeks to undermine not just a free government but a free society. Autocracy isn’t just about personal power, or the power of a political movement over the institutions of government. It’s about extending that power to institutions outside of government—to businesses, to the media, to civic associations."
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/it-is-happening-here/comments
Bill Kristol, "ASBermant," omitted standardized testing.
Admittedly, it came in at its full-bore, suffocating scale after the end of the 1970s, by which time the 1971 Powell memo's campaign to kill humanities in schools was complete. (Via the new Heritage Foundation, an expanded Hoover Institution, and a new ALEC -- the American Legislative Exchange Council.)
By its emphasis on logical categories, purely linear causality, and depersonalized language, standardized testing opened the way to the mass cultism of tens of millions.
Admittedly, too, those tens of millions also had to be given the mass offshoring by U.S. dark money, high finance, and corporate elites -- to kill entire communities across the map. But the elites did that. And began growing the wealth gap.
Enter, too Fentanyl, OxyContin, and other opioids. Enter the corn syrup epidemic. The AR-15 scourge. The hate algorithms for social media billionaires. All planned, coordinated, further growing the wealth gap, the mass hurt.
About five years ago, Putin decided to install video surveillance in every classroom in Russia; also aboard public transportation. To get ahead of critics, he named the system "Orwell." Try saying that Orwell seems Orwellian...
At the very beginning of his genocide in Ukraine, "TomD," Putin also got the signatures of all Russia's 700-plus university presidents supporting all Russia's mass murder, terror, and destruction.
I live in a very red state, in a very red county. It's a poor county filled with Magas in trailers who voted for the Felon and his pals in Congress and approve of the Proud Boys. Just wait until the R's start cutting Medicaid and other services that these people depend on. They'll cry long and loud....but they'll NEVER take responsibility for doing this to themselves.
Dr Hassan calls that one feature / identifier that is a cult. Dr Synder calls it Sado populism. The rest of us call it stupidity. I don’t think Maga understands voting against their own interest is against their own interest. I don’t think they’ll take responsibility. I think they’ve been radicalized. Part of being radicalized is never acknowledging the truth that affect you or others or that anything the dear leader, dies, or says could be negative. Scary times for sure. They have been brainwashed by screen times.
The media sane-washing has assisted the brainwashing.
Just so. All the Mump Regime will need to do is point to the next enemy/other and repeat the lie that "All your problems are THEIR fault."
It's very difficult to get people to admit that they have been duped. The MAGAs are contorting themselves mentally every which way to deny that Trump has thrown them under the bus and has gone all in with the billionaire bros. When the Trump/Musk cuts bite MAGAs where it hurts they will blame immigrants, the deep state, anyone who doesn't look like them, George Soros conspiracies, etc.
It's difficult and probably unnecessary to get people to "admit they have been duped," but it does happen that people realize they have been betrayed. I saw that happen recently with someone. My response wouldn't be "admit you were wrong" or "I told you so," but instead, "what are you going to do to oppose the person who betrayed you?"
Right, they'll find a way to blame black people and liberals. That's what my neighbors do.
Sooooo many things are gonna be Biden's fault, for a loooong time.
'Folks, swamp so filthy it is taking longer than I would have liked. Those crooked Biden people; you have no idea...'
"...and if he hadn't infected all those chickens, we'd have eggs at 69cents a dozen."
...and those darn "illegals".
I too surrounded by maga and they won’t acknowledge the damage and destruction done by their assent to vote for a felon and predator. It’s also true for years they have relied on Democrats to save their bacon when it came to social security and Medicare, while not voting for democrats. It has finally caught up with them.
Is there something with which you can poison the water? Let the state provide them with clean water.
The entire MAGA movement is based on lies. Trump’s whole life has been a lie. But the worst part is that these people are psychopaths. They don’t just lie, they are angry and mean. The purpose of their government is to rape and plunder. The suffering and death they cause makes them feel even more powerful.
Thank you. You have hit the nails on their heads smack on
VERY CLEAR. This is the essence of the coup/con we are being served up. I wish everyone would stop for a g-d moment to consider the personal and business histories of Mr. Musk and his pet PINO Trump. The heartlessness of their treatment of employees and customers alike, the betrayal of promises, the avoidance of safety and environmental safeguards, the sheer, blatant arrogance. Is this the class of person (I won't say man because neither of these guys are more than age 14 or so in terms of their development) we want lording it over us?
Exceptionally well said, Timothy. Keep delivering the truth in your punchy language.
Linguistic inflation (and also subversion of words to create negative connotations, i.e., “woke” the “Democrat party”) is a tool the MAGA right has been using to great effect—it is confounding and hard to combat because they are destroying the language, forcing us into a defensive position of continually needing to clarify and redefine.
I don’t think progressives ever used “woke” to describe their policies and actions, it was appropriated by MAGA as you say, but the use of the word in jest, like in a late night comedian’s opening monologue, or anecdotally in commentary, should to stop. When the only people using it are the far right, it losses its meaning, meaning it’s nothing. Progressives should now phrase comments with “I know this sounds honest/accurate/compassionate/historical/enlightened/meaningful, but it is the truth”. Some of those words are ones the far right does not understand or live by, but they are well defined unlike the truly meaningless “woke”.
I heard progressives use "woke" in the mid-2010's (how do you say that, mid-teens?) I always thought it sounded cringy. That's one I don't mind giving to MAGA.
I love how she defines “woke”
https://youtu.be/Z_v0NJ8_8ps
Woke just means you give a damn about other people!, Jane She looks marvelous.
As to "destroying the language," Karen, please read Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police."
the most obvious fraud is trump himself. i am not a fan of conspiracy theories but the more i see trump giving putin everything he wants (he calls this making deals) the more i think he really is a russian asset (i guess i am using conspiracy theories vocabulary). what he said in helsinki is not normal, and the vote that the US submitted to the UN is not normal. and the hostile attitude to zelensky is not normal.
That's not a conspiracy theory. It's fact. Did you see the vote in the UN the other day? Did we vote with the European countries or with russia, israel, north korea, and belarus?
since the very disappointing muller report back when (4 years ago?) nobody has really tried to connect the dots of trump and putin or trump and russia. also what about the 7 phone calls between trump and putin during biden's presidency? what was that a bout? and can we start talking about these calls? they are creepy to me
If you can find Deepak Puri's graphs, especially the most recent one, you'll see dots meeting each other. I guess I'd better read The Mueller Report. It been sitting on the bedside table for about four years.
i guess no connecting of dots in the general news outlets. i am not that informed on the less known people. will look for deepak puri
I think Deepak puts his graphs up for the Democratic Party. He did one a couple of days ago that I saw on a substack, maybe Lucian Truscott's? But when I see one I'll try to let you know.
thank you
trump calls everyone names....putin? Never.
Today, at the cabinet meeting, t called the government bloated. I could see the bloat right in front of me! He should watch his language.
Thank you. The politicization of words is one of my favorite subjects you write about. I also enjoy reading Klemperer and Orwell on the same subject. It's a way of thinking differently and often reveals a blind spot.
How about the neutering of words, Jennifer?
Diane Ravitch's "The Language Police" details how the standardized testers and the corporate textbook packagers did this assiduously over recent decades.
Fantastic again Tim. Notable that Goebbels & Co. also thrived on PR by redefinition of words. A subtle way to push buttons and realign thinking but not look like they're doing it. Of course it takes a stupid/gullible population to swallow it without examination, which I've been convinced we are for decades. As I've said elsewhere: every person of any persuasion has power to slap back against this. Simply start boycotting, in a large concerted way, all the money-input organizations that fund the oligarchs (Amazon, Facebook, Tesla, etc). All the stuff everyone can't stop being addicted to (they think).
Thanks and PS: it's also worth being aware, in case anyone has any doubts of the power of witholding sales, that even a 3% change (more or less the trigger) in sales downward is enough to cause board meetings. I learned this very well during a "stop Home Depot" campaign in L.A. some 20 years ago. I doubt if they are watching stats any less closely today. So practice some plain old Yankee endurance and STOP BUYING THEIR CRAP.
swasticar sales are down close to 50% in Europe, which does see it's time to de-Tesla
Beautiful. I was thinking: if every single fed worker, along with their entire family tree, who's just been dumped by the executive office stopped engaging with any oligarch institution/sales outlet, what sort of a drop that would be? It's still legal to dream.
"a stupid/gullible population," John?
You wouldn't be referring to the products of U.S. education?
It's multiple choice Phil, many options :) Over decades. ♥
Yes, John.
A charming way of teaching that it's always others, unseen, elite superiors, who ask the questions. Never the numbers and units that are mere students, or mere classroom teachers.
And teaching, too, that correct answer always reinforce views of the world that are categorical-deferential. Never personal. Never nuanced. Never inviting looking into complications as all decent essays will do.
Also modeling the conceit that all the "reading" any ever need to do is limited to the short texts keyed to A-B-C-D inanities. Never any whole books, which even the best universities anymore find profs having to limit or cancel altogether.
You sound like a teacher! And yes, whole books are only for those that really like to read anymore. And we're all bound to be down the river by robots in the next 30-50 years according to RethinkX:
https://www.rethinkx.com/blog/rethinkx/the-painful-truth-about-ai-and-robotics?
...which is all the same to me as I'm in my late 60's. But like I've told people over and over, there was never anything written that said the human race had to survive, in this temporary configuration anyway. Just look all of them other big societies that thought they'd last 1000 years! Some dipstick threw a Hitler salute at the CPAC the other day I guess. Someone should tell him how long the Third Reich lasted (12 years out of 1000 haha). We'll see how long THEY last. Cheers.
Brilliant article and right on the money. CNN questioned Rep. Ryan Zinke (Rep. Mon) today on whether he would approve cuts to Medicaid and he said only in cases of fraud or abuse of the system. That's the playbook: cuts to Medicaid are going to be characterised as the elimination of fraud and abuse. Get used to hearing it because it's going to be coming at you day after day. On the demonisation of civil servants, Trump said yesterday that it was to establish whether federal workers actually exist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWaaReKQx_E
Marjorie Taylor Greene has also pitched in attacking federal workers for not bringing in revenue (in the IRS that's actually their job!) and perhaps someone should remind here that she also draws a federal paycheck for doing practically nothing - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UxVVL-o-ka8
On the delegitimation of government, Trump is backing Musk and DOGE, even though Musk apparently isn't the DOGE administrator (that would be Amy Gleason, a health investment adviser and former Champion for Change under Barack Obama and the first she heard about this was while she was on vacation!). Firstly, he's allowing Musk to attend the first meeting of the cabinet. Secondly, in light of the departmental resistence to the OPM email, he's asked for an executive order to be drafted requiring departments and agencies to comply with further lay-offs by DOGE. Musk meanwhile has claimed that over 1 million responses had been received to the email. One wonders who is counting them since DOGE only had 40 employees after 21 civil servants resigned yesterday.
"Firstly, he's allowing Musk to attend the first meeting of the cabinet."
And I am curious as to how much time Elon allocates to trump to speak up during that Cabinet meeting. Elon needs to make a stronger effort to make it look like trump is in charge of things, and this is a good 'clean up' opportunity, ( considering he and his kid hurt the Leader's standing--and feelings-- so badly in that unfortunate Oval office photo-op)
It was extraordinary, wasn't it? The only time I've seen Trump that subdued was during a joint press conference with Barack Obama when he was president-elect - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYkxVbYxy-c
And this time at the church in Flint Michigan back in 2016…
https://youtu.be/NdWP_4mxaLQ?si=I0SyaGcjLvSn0spG
"Lay-offs" means termination, fired to these nutcases.
Yes, but it also means large payouts to federal workers who resign and to those fired without legal cause - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/21/trump-mass-firings-federal-government-bill
That's why they have started with those who are still on probation and therefore have fewer legal protections against dismissal. Their 'deferred resignation' scheme promises workers payments up until October but the government is only funded until 14 March. Democrats say that they will not vote for spending on many of the administration's policies.
They’d be counted electronically.
For that to happen, DOGE would have had first to set up a system for receiving and recording responses electronically. The OPM email includes no such system and I think that's because it was issued on a whim by Musk. Following yesterday's cabinet meeting, they have come up with a new plan requiring targeted departments to identify and eliminate non-statutory functions to facilitate reduction of the federal workforce - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/26/federal-layoffs-trump
This comes with added political risks because it will soon become apparent which federal programs will be discontinued.
There is so much to do right now, and I’ve been thinking ahead to the 2026 mid terms. It’s overwhelming to witness our democracy being attacked from the outside and now from within by 3 white boys raised in apartheid South Africa, musk, theil , sachs.
The Real Lesson from the 2016 Election: How the Russians Taught Silicon Valley Billionaires to Manipulate the Masses
The 2016 U.S. presidential election was a turning point in modern political manipulation, not just because of Russian interference but because it exposed and refined the tactics of mass influence in the digital age. While much attention has been given to Russian disinformation campaigns, the real takeaway is that Silicon Valley billionaires—who control the platforms enabling this manipulation—learned how to apply these same techniques for their own purposes. The election demonstrated that social media algorithms, microtargeted advertising, and psychological manipulation could manufacture consent, spread false narratives, and distort public perception on an unprecedented scale.
Russia’s disinformation campaign, as detailed in reports from U.S. intelligence agencies and investigative journalists, relied on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to spread propaganda, amplify divisions, and distort reality. They exploited the very algorithms designed to maximize engagement, showing that outrage and misinformation spread faster and further than truth. The most effective aspect of this campaign was not the creation of fake news but the ability to amplify and legitimize existing biases, making falsehoods feel credible.
Silicon Valley executives took note. The 2016 election was not just a lesson in foreign interference—it was a blueprint for domestic influence. Tech billionaires realized that the same tools used by Russian operatives could be repurposed for corporate and political control. By leveraging data analytics, behavioral psychology, and AI-driven content distribution, they could manipulate public opinion at scale. Platforms like Facebook and YouTube had already optimized their algorithms to keep users engaged, but the election revealed the darker potential of these systems: they could be used to create alternative realities, radicalize individuals, and drive political outcomes.
The rise of figures like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel in the political sphere demonstrates how Silicon Valley’s elite absorbed these lessons. Musk’s control of X (formerly Twitter) reflects an understanding that social media is not just a tool for communication but for shaping public consciousness. Thiel, an early Facebook investor, has long advocated for using technology to disrupt democratic institutions in favor of libertarian and authoritarian models. Their influence is not just in the platforms they own but in the broader ecosystem of digital information warfare, where billionaire-funded media outlets, think tanks, and AI-driven propaganda machines now dominate political discourse.
Ultimately, the true lesson of 2016 is that democracy is vulnerable not just to foreign adversaries but to domestic tech oligarchs who have refined and weaponized the art of mass manipulation. The same disinformation strategies that helped elect Donald Trump are now embedded in the infrastructure of Silicon Valley’s most powerful companies. Unless this influence is checked, the ability to manufacture reality will remain in the hands of those who profit from deception.
Ted-that was very good explanation and I agree with your assessment. How do we encourage or create an activist counter group to use similar tactics for 2026? There are the young Dems mentioned previously with talks of a shadow government-which I never heard of anything being created, just names. There are now many high ranking ex - military, JAGs, attorneys, Marc Cuban, Jane Fonda, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger- plenty of people who could form a counter to what is happening and create social media to reach those who didn’t vote, Magas affected by Medicaid cuts and high food prices, young people esp young men.
I guess I read a lot on Substack and Blue Sky about how pissed and concerned we are but it seems there are mostly just columnists with great ideas. There is the group Indivisible and other awareness groups, but I don’t see anything forming that has the clout to take over where Dem leaders are failing.
Algorithms, Beth.
Timothy Snyder, Heather Cox Richardson, Rebecca Solnit, and others on Substack could program algorithms so that appearing first are commenters with track records of getting responses, stirring fellow commenters to conversation.
Schools, too, could have essaying programs teaching the arts of listening to others, and then quoting them directly and indirectly.
Dems, remember, showed themselves totally illiterate as to such skills -- seeing "others," quoting so as to show sympathy for our offshored, abandoned working classes.
This is such an old scam. Years ago, during the Obama administration, a neighbor's son had appendicitis. He was in his forties and had never really worked because he was an alcoholic. He lived with his mother. She complained to me that Obamacare did not cover his medical expenses when he had to have an appendectomy. She is a lifelong Republican (and now a Trump supporter.) I explained to her that here in TN, Obama tried to expand Medicaid to cover childless poor men like her son, but failed because the Republican dominated TN legislature declined the Medicaid dollars. I also explained that Republicans had sued and won to make sure that states could reject Medicaid dollars. She looked at me, totally confused. Finally she said, "But my son has never asked for any help in his life, and meanwhile, all those other people have been getting help from the government for years."
In other words, undeserving Others have been getting hand-outs, while her family had gotten nothing, and it wasn't fair. She could not understand that the same Republicans she had been voting for, for years, had actually done this to her. She blamed Obama, because Obamacare didn't cover her son. She could not believe that Obama had actually TRIED to cover people like her son, but people like her had voted into office Republican legislators who would take away the benefits she needed. So she ended up paying for her son's care out of her own pocket.
Sad. I don’t know how their brains work. In Canada we long ago agreed to higher taxes so everyone could have free healthcare. But most Republicans are extremely critical of Canada’s system. I have no complaints.
If Timothy Snyder’s article could be on the front page of every newspaper in the US and BlueSky so others could benefit from his wise words, it might be part of an awareness of many. The section on mistrust between the dedicated civil servants and general population was something all of us should be warned about!
Thank you, Timothy Snyder, for another enlightening comment! I have the feeling that there are not enough voices speaking out against what's going on in the US. I certainly miss prominent Democratic ones, where are they?
We've heard so much of this before over the many years that I've been voting. Thanks for succinctly putting it together. My question - I guess it's a stupid question because a lot of people are stupid - is why people fall for any of it. Is there some fraud in many areas of government? Probably. Was there a welfare queen that Reagan described? Yes, she was a real person. But that doesn't describe the vast majority of government. Nor does it counter-balance white collar crime, including fraud, in which government malfeasance is a drop in an ocean. People are ignorant, lazy. They watch TV to be spoon fed. RW media has drummed this into their heads for the last 40 years. And parroting RW disinformation is easier than thinking for oneself. We are a stupid, unengaged electorate. Hillary's basket of deplorables, while sort of accurate, does not take into account that these people are led astray. Maybe that's their own fault. But this country is in the toilet. I
Not yet, I was at the rally in San Francisco to support Ukraine this last weekend. The positive energy from people attending as well as people driving by was encouraging. Many of the supporters had no connection to Ukraine besides recognizing that their fight for democracy was linked to our democracy. I think, separate from rallys to support Ukraine, we need to organize and attend protest rallys against the actions that erode our democracy.